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Series consists of decrees nisi, decrees absolute, and divorce orders issued by the Supreme Court of Victoria between 1877 and 1998. Decrees nisi were used inconsistently prior to the 1930s and required a waiting period before a decree absolute could be issued. Between 1968 and 1985, the waiting period was three months. A divorce was not legally in effect without a decree absolute. After 1985, divorce orders automatically came into effect 31 days after the divorce was granted, barring an appeal.

Volumes 1-11 and 19-43 are indexed. The records were scheduled for full retention under Court Services ORCS (schedule 100152) 51440-25.

Series consists of a letterpress book of Victoria Court Registry correspondence outward for 1874-1878. The records are indexed.

Series consists of Victoria Supreme Court chamber applications for 1906-1916 (nos. 164/06-781/16). Chamber applications are record books for proceedings in a judge's/justice's Chambers. Entries may include date, case number, presiding judge, style of cause, names of solicitors, nature of the application, and remarks.

Series consists of criminal assize calendars for various registries. The calendar for Victoria dates 1870-1965. Calendars for the following registries date between 1871-1879: Cassiar, Clinton, Glenora, Kamloops, Laketon, Lytton, Nanaimo, New Westminster, Quesnellemouth (or Quesnelmouth, Quesnelle, Quesnel), Richfield, and Yale.

Series consists of jury records for Victoria Supreme and County Courts for 1907-1953. Records include rolls and lists of Grand and Petit Jurors compiled under the Jurors Act and jury exemptions.

The series consists of cause books for bankruptcies tried in the Victoria Supreme Court between 1920 and 1981. Entries are arranged chronologically by the date the case commenced, and provide a list of proceedings in the case. Entries also provide the date of the final order. Orders are found in GR-2876, and an index to the cause books can be found in GR-3743

Series consists of Victoria Supreme Court minute books for civil and criminal cases for 1889-1925. Includes a few actions involving ships marked with Vice-Admiralty Court and Exchequer Court, B.C. Admiralty Division. Volumes 1 and 3 are indexed.

The series consists of 11 volumes of bills of sale indexes and registers created by the Victoria Supreme Court between 1861 and 1956. The registers list bills of sale for chattel mortgages and conditional sales. Index volumes are arranged by name. Most volumes relate to bills of sale in Victoria but volume 11 is an index to bills of sale on the mainland.

Series consists of one Victoria Supreme Court Assize criminal record book for May 1917-May 1948. Records are indexed.

Series consists of Victoria Supreme Court presentments of the Grand Jury for April 1900-Oct 1931.

Series consists of two volumes of letterbooks. Volume 1, "letterbook #6", includes correspondence outward by the Victoria Supreme Court Registrar for 1866-1890 (indexed). Pages 1-84 of vol. 2, "letterbook #7", includes correspondence outward for the Dominion Saw Mill Co. for 1884-1885. Pages 84 onward of vol. 2. includes correspondence outward by the Sheriff for 1866-1890.

Sheriff's receipt book for cases in all courts at the Victoria Court Registry, 1879-1883.

The series consists of civil orders issued by the Supreme Court in Victoria between 1880 and 2008. Orders dating from 1880 until December 1946 were microfilmed and the originals destroyed. Records after this period are maintained in their original form. Many, but not all, volumes dating up to the late 1980s include nominal indexes and are noted in the attached finding aid. Orders are the formal expression of the ruling of the court. The records relate to a variety of civil matters including adoptions, divorces, and bankruptcies.

The records were scheduled for full retention under Court Services ORCS (schedule 100152) 51400-25.

Series consists of judgements created between November 1880 and October 1977 by the Victoria Supreme Court. Orders are the formal expression of the ruling of the court and judgements are the final orders issued in a case. Early records relate to a variety of matters, including adoption and divorce. Records after 1958 primarily relate to financial matters such as damages, costs, payments, bankruptcy recovery, and divorce costs and maintenance. Original textual records up to the end of 1958 were destroyed after microfilming; retrieve those records using microfilm.

Records are arranged by volume and folio number as assigned by the court registry. The records were scheduled for full retention under Court Services ORCS (schedule 100152) 51400-25.

Series consists of divorce case files created between 1940 and 1949 by the Victoria Supreme Court registry. Orders have been removed from this series and are filed separately as GR-1587. Typical divorce case files can include petitions, affidavits, summons, correspondence and other records relating to the case.

Records are arranged by case file numbers, which were assigned chronologically by the court registry and include the year a divorce was initiated. The records were scheduled for full retention under Court Services ORCS (schedule 100152) 51440-20.

The series consists of correspondence inward created by the Victoria Supreme Court registry between 1889 and 1925. The correspondence is arranged by date and sorted alphabetically within each year by the name of the correspondent. The files include letters from the Attorney-General and government offices, law firms, Police Departments and other individuals and businesses. The files contain letters, government circulars, requests for information, statistics, judgements and other records.

This series contains probate files for estates probated in Victoria, ca. 1859-1941. The probate files from 1859 to 1917 are organized more or less alphabetically within date groups or ranges and have been numbered, sequentially, from 1 to 5307. From 1918 onwards, probate files were assigned numbers by year in the order of filing and are more or less in chronological order. The originals of files 1 to 5307 have been retained as well as being microfilmed. Files from 1918 onwards are only available on microfilm.

In addition to the file names provided in the finding aid, an index for this collection is also available on microfilm (see GR-1417, reel B01990). Reel B01990 should be used if a name is not found on the file list, as there are 103 missing files. If a will number is provided, it can be used to locate a copy of the will in GR-1052 or GR-1574.

This series contains letters of administration with will annexed (Form B) from the Supreme Court of Victoria, from 1915-1989.

This series contains Letters of Administration granted to the Official Administrator for estates probated in the Victoria Court Registry in cases where the deceased died intestate or did not name an executor who was able to act, and the Official Administrator handled the probate process. Indexes to Victoria probate records are found in GR-1417.

The series consists of original probated wills from the Victoria court registry. The wills appear to have been deliberately removed from the original probate file and refiled in a second accession. Records in this series are arranged by probate number, an index to which is found in GR-3016. After the wills were removed from the original probate file, they were replaced with a photocopy.

For wills predating 1986, see GR-1052, GR-1574, and GR-2009, with an index in GR-1417.

This series contains letters probate from the Victoria Supreme Court.

This series consists of letters of administration (Form C) from the Supreme Court of British Columbia, from 1876-1989.

The series consists of both bound and loose grants of letters probate created by the Victoria Supreme Court between 1946 and 1989. Grants of letters probate were issued by the court system to grant authority to an estate’s executor/trix to administer the estate in question.

Grants of letters probate provide the name of the deceased, the date and place of death, the usual residence of the deceased, and the name of the executor.

The series is arranged by volume and folio, a system which is also broadly chronological. Grants are stamped with the volume and folio number, but also with the probate number of the deceased. An index to probate numbers can be found in GR-3016 (1950-2000) or GR-2083 (1941-1950).

Series consists of Victoria Supreme Court probate/estate files for 1950-2007.

Series consists of Victoria Supreme Court probates/estate files for 1941-1950.

Series consists of an index to Victoria Supreme Court judgements from 1 Jan 1885 - 1 Nov 1895. See GR-1590 for associated judgements and the preceding index.

The series consists of indexes to Victoria probate files and to probated wills in the Central registry.

The index serves two purposes because the Victoria court registry was responsible for maintaining the Victoria probate files and - until the late 1980s - kept the Central Will Registry for the Department of the Attorney General. The Victoria probate numbers (for files which are in GR-1304, GR-2083 and GR-3016) appear in the left-hand column under "papers". The will numbers (for wills found in GR-1052, GR-1574 and GR-2009) appear in the right-hand column of the indexes under remarks.

Users should note that index cards for the period 1982 to 1988 cover estates probated across the province, and provide the probate number, the registry where the estate was probated, and the central will registry number.

Notes regarding the Central Will Registry :

Until July 1986, all wills in BC were kept in a separate, central location, maintained by the Victoria Court Registry. When a person died, leaving a will, the will was submitted to a court registry for probate. Staff in that registry forwarded the original will to Victoria, where it was assigned a number in a sequence that included wills from all registries in the province. Copies of the wills were often kept in the probate files for working purposes. In some cases, however, wills were sometimes returned to the custody of the respective court registries. Researchers should keep this in mind if searching for an original will.

In July 1986, Vancouver, New Westminster, Nanaimo, Chilliwack, Penticton, Vernon, Kamloops, Prince George and Kelowna began to track their own original probated wills. All other registries continued to send their original probated wills to the Central Wills Registry in Victoria.

As of August 1998 each registry is responsible for their own wills.

The file consists of a civil case file from the British Columbia Supreme Court (Victoria). It is numbered A 374/55. The action was James Audain vs Robin James Dunsmuir re: damages for slander of plaintiff's book "From Coalmine to Castle". The file includes a transcript.

This series consists of 19 volumes of Victoria Supreme Court daily diaries, 1907, 1910-1912, 1916-1919, 1923-1932, 1934. Volume 1 includes weather reports as well as matters of the court.

The series consists of several different indexes relating to bankruptcy in Victoria and across the country. The records were maintained in the Victoria Supreme Court, and although they generally relate to records created in the 1960s to 1990s, at least one volume dates to the 1920s and 1930s. Early indexes are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the bankrupt individual. Later indexes, particularly those dealing with the late 1980s, are divided first by year and then arranged alphabetically. The 1989 to 1990 index provides the name of the individual, the name of the trustee, and a file number. All file numbers appear to refer to cause book entries, which give a more detailed account of proceedings in the case.

The series also consists of a subseries of records maintained by the Victoria Supreme Court that relate to bankruptcy cases heard outside of Victoria. Many of these volumes index entries in the Canada Gazette, and list individuals in Ontario and across the country. There are also several volumes that index bankruptcies across the province, and include entries from places such as Barriere, Penticton, and Rossland.